Quadrennial Review Shouldn't Lead to Relaxed Ownership Rules, Common Cause Says

The FCC quadrennial review shouldn't be “a vehicle” for relaxing ownership rules, Common Cause said in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Monday, according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 09-182. “Nested ownership structures lead to homogenization of content, to the detriment of the public interest.” The record on media ownership is incomplete and “more research must be done should the Commission consider relaxing or eliminating the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rules,” said the group.